


In Between Ghosts

by Books in the Blood (WholockHobbit88)



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Ghosts, Lizzie Borden House, M/M, Mixed feelings, Ryan's POV, Sharing a Bed, Sleeping Together, Spirits, True Crime, buzzfeed unsolved - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 05:17:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13116843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WholockHobbit88/pseuds/Books%20in%20the%20Blood
Summary: Ryan can never sleep at haunted locations so he finds something to occupy his time; he watches Shane sleep.





	In Between Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> So, here it is; apparently I write RPF now and ship these two goons :) Hope you enjoy!

It wasn't always as glorious as everyone thought it was. Sure, Ryan loved it all; he was one of those few people who were blessed to actually be doing something he enjoyed. That wasn't to say he wasn't absolutely terrified about 95% of the time because he was. He fully believed in ghosts and having to go to places where he had to possibly confront them made him absolutely terrified but in an adrenaline-fueled, shaky, and excited way. He loved what he did and was thankful to be doing something he was passionate about.

But that didn't mean it was always glorious…when you did YouTube videos the fans had a tendency to see only the best parts. It wasn't always excitement and being on set, chasing ghosts…..there was a lot normal parts. That was the whole point; people only wanted to see the exciting parts so that was obviously all that made it into the videos. There was a lot of sitting in a car traveling between ghost sites, a lot of looking for a suitable place to eat at only to be forced to eat subpar food, a lot of days of skipped showers, far too many disgusting rest stops, fighting over what to play on the radio and a whole lot of terrible places to rest their heads.

It was that last one that was Ryan's undoing so many times. He liked chasing ghosts but he didn't like SLEEPING with them. He knew that was part of it…..he knew that the fans liked it but he couldn't stand it. How was he supposed to sleep when he was on a dirty floor on the Queen Mary or scared out of his wits in the Sally House? Even in places that were supposed to be fun and quirky like a Bigfoot motel he couldn't calm his mind enough to actually go to sleep. And though that might not sound like a big deal to some people, those people surely hadn't spent a sleepless night in a crappy hotel or sleeping on the floor of a haunted location. It was hard to feel positive about what they were doing when it was 7am on a grey cold morning after no sleep.

The Lizzie Borden House was no different than the rest. The night had been fun enough; there hadn't been any overly terrifying ghostly events and whispering the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme over and over again huddled so close to Shane in the dark had just been plain…fun. Though they'd messed it up a few times it hadn't mattered; Ryan had felt a tingle, not of cold like ghosts usually presented but of warmth…..as he'd laughed with Shane he'd felt warm and he laughed with excitement. It was a goofy night; Shane accusing that stupid cat stuffy as being the murder, Shane stealing the money to provoke Andrew Borden's ghost…..Shane just being Shane. The night had ended on a high note sitting on that tiny bed drinking beers together even if Shane tried to scare him while they were sitting there, thinking of sleep paralysis and faces in windows.

But no matter how fun or terrifying the nights were they all ended on the same note. No matter what had really happened, Ryan ended the night in some strange place, lying down and not being able to rest for the idea of ghosts hiding in the shadows. No matter what Shane said or what bravado he tried to muster for himself, Ryan was always terrified when the lights went out. Shane always tried to act like his fear was no more than a child's being afraid of the dark; Ryan frankly thought that perhaps children HAD a reason to fear the dark. He certainly did; every sound or change in light or slight movement made his heart hammer in his chest and his breath catch in his chest. There was no way that he could possibly think about sleep; sleep would require relaxing and he was incapable of that in these places.

Shane obviously did not have this problem. Sleeping in a haunted location did not faze him at all. The only thing that slowed him down was if the location they were sleeping in was cold or uncomfortable for sleeping like a floor; on an occasion like the Lizzie Borden house where they were actually give a bed, albeit a small one, it took him less than five minutes before he was snoring away. Ryan didn't blame him; he didn't believe any of the things that they chased after, therefor he had no reason to be afraid. But Ryan was jealous; while he was trying to blow time on his phone to avoid blind fear in the dark, Shane was comfortably snoozing away like Ryan wished he could.

Eventually, after several nights spent like this, sleepless and miserable, Ryan found another past time for spending these longs nights; watching Shane sleep. Of course, he'd rather die at the hands of one of these ghosts one night than tell Shane or anyone else that. He could just see it slip out one day:

"What do you DO all night if you don't sleep? What can you possibly do for six fucking hours in the dark?

"Watch you sleep….."

"No, seriously…."

"I am serious…"

"…..Dude…..what the fuck?"

At which point, Ryan would imagine Shane taking every possible precaution to make sure that they never ever had to sleep in the same bed or even the same room again.

Ryan's first reaction, even in his head, was to defend himself. There was nothing wrong with watching Shane sleep; he wasn't hurting anyone and he certainly never DID anything to Shane while he was watching him. But even as he thought of this self-defense, he knew some part of it wasn't right. If there was nothing wrong with it, he wouldn't feel the need to hide it from Shane like it was a dirty secret. If he was doing nothing wrong, he wouldn't jump every time Shane stirred while he was watching him, afraid that while he was staring intently at him, Shane's eyes would pop open and meet his. Deep down he knew there was something a little inherently fucked up about watching Shane sleep; no one wanted to be watched sleeping. But that didn't mean Ryan could stop or even that he wanted to stop.

In his defense, it was pretty hard to be lying within inches of someone and not look at them. Sleeping was out of the question and there was only so much he could do on his phone. So he started to study Shane. He hadn't always been the best student but he was totally intent when it came to a subject that he was truly passionate about. And, surprisingly, he found he was 'passionate' about the subject of his sleeping friend. Though the knowledge was only reveled to himself, and hopefully no one else ever, here's what he learned:

1\. Shane Madej could sleep anywhere- It did not matter if they were outside, in hot or cold weather, on a floor, in bed, in an asylum, jail or house…some factors might slow down how quickly he could go to sleep but they never prevented him from sleeping entirely.

2\. Ryan could tell when he was dreaming- in a normal state of sleep, Shane was slack, his face relaxed and emotionless. In a matter of only seconds he went from this state to his eyes rolling under his lids, lips twitching slightly. Confession: Ryan wanted to film him like this but resisted the temptation. The threat that Shane could one day see the footage on his phone, even on accident, was too much to do it.

3\. Shane always got hot when he slept- Shane would always start off with covers tucked up close to him but about half way through the night, he'd push and kick them off so that the covers were about waist high. Alternately, about an hour later, Shane would start to shiver again. Ryan supposed when he was sleeping alone this would be the point where he'd wakeup, cover himself and roll over before going back to sleep. But when he was sleeping next to Ryan, this was the point where Ryan would pull the covers up to Shane's shoulders and the shivering would stop; Shane would relax again and go back into peaceful sleep.

4\. Shane was more bothered when the place they were sleeping was a murder site- Ryan was sure that he would deny this is asked but it WAS true. When they were sleeping somewhere where the only lore surrounding it was ghosts or demons, Shane slept soundly; when the place they were sleeping at involved a murder or some kind of violent crime he was notably disturbed. He would toss and turn, his face would be scrunched and he would make noises in his sleep. While awake, he knew Shane could care less about locations where there were demons or ghosts while he was often nervous at murder locations. Ryan knew this played into his logic over myth mindset but still…he was hoping, at least a little bit, that his subconscious would give him away. It didn't…Shane really was more nervous at the site of human killings than ghost sightings.

5\. Shane talked in his sleep- or, rather, he muttered. Ryan was always hoping to hear specific words in Shane's nightly mutterings. He would laugh in the midst of his nightly fear at the thought that he could capture Shane's nightly musings with the audio recorder to play back later. Of course, he never did; one reason was because Shane's musings never really amounted to any kind of words that meant anything (to Ryan's dismay) and obviously he could not play back the recording to Shane without revealing that he had been listening in the first place. So of course….he left it unrecorded.

The night of the Lizzie Borden House, Ryan noticed all of this and more. He certainly couldn't sleep…..he'd laughed when Shane had suggested the idea that he would get sleep paralysis and see a face in the window but his laughter was uncomfortable laugher. The idea had petrified him and ensured he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink here.

As usual, Shane had slept almost instantly, and Ryan was left holding the ghostly bags. In the tiny little quilted bed Ryan could watch the progression….. Shane definitely could sleep anywhere, he was soon dreaming by the fluttering of his eye lids (though as always Ryan wondered what he dreamed) and half way through the night Shane got hot enough that he was pushing off the covers.

That's where things changed…normally, Ryan would have just pushed the covers back up to Shane's shoulders and lay back. Normally, he would just lie back and try to sleep despite it all; he would listen for Shane's sleepy mumblings and hope that he could hear something in it. But not tonight…..tonight, smashed together in that tiny bed Ryan pulled the covers up to Shane's shoulders but he couldn't stop there. As the pink, early morning light filtered through the old, lacy curtains, as Shane's face twitched uncomfortably, as if he was in a state of nightmare (he might have been, this was after all a murder location and not merely a ghostly site), Ryan broke his own don't-be-creepy rule and reached out to touch Shane's hand under the covers. He had no idea what possessed him to such a borderline thing; he didn't know if it was out of sympathy for nightmare having Shane or out of sympathy for his own tired, terrified self. Either way, he now found himself with his hand over top of Shane's under the overly hot covers.

Just as he had no idea what made him do it, he just as clearly had no idea what he could have hoped to gain from the act. But he was startled by the effect all the same; when Ryan's hand touch Shane's unsurprisingly giant one, an immediate sense of calm came over him. Nothing had changed; he was still sleeping in a house where two brutal murders had taken place and where those murdered souls still lingered. But for some reason, he didn't feel that troubled energy that he had been feeling since they had walked in the door; he felt simple, pure peace. Maybe it had to do with Shane's energy; though Shane was always there and he was always frustratingly CHILL, maybe actually touching him somehow transferred that energy to Ryan. In his sleep addled mind he imagined asking Shane if he could hold his hand while at their next haunted location; he had to bury his face in the pillow to keep from waking Shane up with his laughter.

Right before closing his eyes, Ryan looked at Shane. Apparently, he must have felt the calming energy too; his face was relaxed and calm now even though they were still sleeping in a murder location.

Miraculously, Ryan actually slept. He certainly didn't mean to; what if Shane woke up before him and found their hands together? But he did sleep…though it couldn't have been for more than an hour, based on the early morning sunlight steaming through the window he felt surprisingly alert and relaxed; he'd certainly never felt so rested in the morning on location.

Ryan's eyes adjusted to waking; his hand was still resting on Shane's and he was infinitely relieved to see Shane was still asleep and in the same positon as before Ryan had gone to sleep. There was no doubt in Ryan's mind that the source of calm came from Shane; as soon as he reluctantly let go of his hand, he felt that little nagging feeling of a dark energy creeping up to him again. Eager to get out of there now that the calm was gone and not ready to further analyze the source of the calm, Ryan roused Shane and hopped out of the bed quickly.

Ryan was startled when a few minutes later when Shane had gotten out of bed and rubbed the sleep from his own eyes, remarked on Ryan's obviously rested state.

"Hey, for once you don't look like you're about to dramatically faint from fatigue. No sleep paralysis? No faces in the window?" Shane teased with a morning roughened voice.

Ryan laughed and hoped that his face didn't betray him at all. "No…..sorry to bust your bubble but there were no ghosts, no faces in the window…no sleep paralysis" Ryan said.

"No ghosts? I'm stunned….really, I can't believe something that doesn't exist didn't show up" Shane teased, running his hand through his hair but only succeeding in making his hair more tousled. Ryan tried not to overthink things; he tried not to focus too much on the fact that it was that hand that had got him through the night.

"Yeah…..yeah, fuck you" Ryan said playfully, though it didn't come out as relaxed as it should have.

"Did you actually sleep? Has that ever happened at one of these places?" Shane asked, his eyes looking far too keenly at Ryan's.

Ryan thought he should have been given an award for how normal he acted despite the internal screaming in his head. "I sleep at all of these places, just not very well" he said.

Shane chuckled. "You didn't sleep at the Sallie House"

"Neither of us slept at the Sallie House. Should I assume you were also afraid of the demon?" Ryan asked with a massive eye roll.

"You honestly want to talk about why I didn't sleep at the Sallie House? I could have easily slept there if SOMEBODY would have let me" Shane said.

Quickly deciding to avoid where this conversation was going, Ryan said, "Well, how DID you sleep last night?" He focused on stuffing items into his suitcase to avoid looking too guilty. He always asked Shane how he slept; and he always knew the answer before he spoke. He always knew how Shane had slept. He knew when he slept well because his face was relaxed and he didn't move as much. He knew when he had nightmares because his face would crease in worry. He knew when he was getting sick because his snoring got worse. He always knew but he always asked all the same.

This was the one time where Shane's answer surprised him. "I slept like a baby. Well, I had some really fucked up dreams at first but then they stopped like a light being turned on. Great night's sleep after that. "

Ryan was glad he wasn't looking at Shane; he was glad that he could hide his smile from Shane.

And just like the warm feeling or the calm itself, Ryan wasn't prepared to fully analyze that smile.

Because just like he always knew how Shane had slept without asking, deep down he knew the meaning behind the calm he'd felt, the reason for Shane's calm sleep and his own smile at the revelation.


End file.
